vocab 41-60 Flashcards
Adage
a short, pointed and memorable statement saying based on facts and considered a veritable truth by the majority of people. Famous adages become popular due to their usage over a long period of time, In fact, an adage expresses a general fact or truth about life. As it becomes popular, it is then accepted as a universal truth. e.g. “God helps those who help themselves”
Pedantic
Comes from a french word, pedant, means “to teach or to act as a pedagogue” A pedantic is someone who is concerned with precision, formalism, accuracy, minute details in order to make an arrogant and ostentatious show of learning.
Flippant
lacking proper respect or seriousness. This is often associated with the impatience of youth. here are some examples… smart-ass, wise-ass
Evocative
use of language that suggests meaning other than the denotative. Language that connects with emotions or feelings, not associated with the actual meaning of the word.
Syntactical Inversion
Inversion, also called anastrophe, in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactical reversal of the normal order order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as, in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies “ the form divine” or a verb before its subject, “came the dawn”
Apposition
a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to identify the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be in apposition.
Didactic
the word didactic is frequently used for those literary texts which are overloaded with informative, or realistic matter and are marked by the omission of graceful and pleasing details. Didactic therefore becomes a derogatory word referring to the forms of literature that are ostentatiously dull and erudite. However some literary texts are entertaining as well as didactic.
Conceit
a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together
